ISCA Early Career Speaker Series, Session Three: Antisemitism and the Digital Sphere

October 16, 2025.

Lev Topor (Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo / ISGAP) - "Artificially Amplified: Challenges and Complexities of Dealing with Online and AI-Enhanced Antisemitism"

This lecture examines the emerging threat posed by AI-generated content in fueling antisemitism across digital platforms. Focusing on synthetic media such as deepfakes, forged images, and auto-generated texts, Dr. Topor analyzes how technological manipulation shapes public perception and reinforces extremist ideologies. Attention is given to radicalized audiences, bystanders, and the mechanisms of algorithmic amplification. The session will explore detection methods and suggest strategic responses to mitigate this evolving challenge.

Dr. Lev Topor is a policy-oriented researcher specializing in antisemitism, cybersecurity, and intelligence. He is the author of multiple books, including Phishing for Nazis (Routledge, 2023) and Cyber Sovereignty (Springer Nature, 2024). He has held fellowships at Cambridge and Yad Vashem, and advised governmental and intergovernmental bodies on cyber policy and hate speech.

Daniel Miehling (Indiana University) - "Affect Mobilization on YouTube: Emotional Toning in State-Funded News Outlets Covering the Israel-Hamas War"

Dr. Daniel Miehling's research studies the intersections of anti-Zionism and antisemitism in digital discourse. His current work focuses on political communication in social media, analyzing narratives following the attacks on Israel after October 7. Using methods of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Computational Social Science (CSS), he examines how news coverage by state-funded media influences online discussions about Israel, Jews, Palestinians, and Islamist groups. By analyzing large-scale datasets, his research provides insights into the dissemination of contemporary manifestations of antisemitism, the emotional toning within User-Generated Content (UGC), and the challenges of detecting harmful content in digital spaces.

Abstract: How do users emotionally and ideologically respond to state-funded media coverage of the Israel–Hamas War on YouTube? This talk presents findings from two recently published studies analyzing millions of comments using aspect-based sentiment analysis. The approach reveals patterns of affective alignment, polarization, and coded language in user-generated discourse. I show how this method yields scalable insights and provides robust tools for analyzing online antisemitism and political discourse in digital environments.

Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/